Tonight a deeper look at a dangerous trend in politics and who's behind it.

A team of investigative journalists that NJ Advance Media has spent the last year digging into growing pockets of toxic radicalism that have made their way into the mainstream.

These are ideas that were once considered the core of fringe groups only, but they've been spread through the use of hate speech, bigotry and division.

It turns out even in a progressive blue state like new Jersey, there's an appetite and an audience for the disinformation being spread, sometimes with poisonous results.

Spencer Kent is one of the leading journalists on the new Project Extreme series, and he joins me now here in the studio.

Spencer, I'm so glad to have you on and to give another platform to this work because I think it's very important.

You guys decided to dig in to whether or not there could be a home for this in a place like new Jersey.

What did you stumble upon when you started investigating?

I mean, we really went out not knowing what exactly we were going to find.

We wanted to see if the far right was making inroads in a state like new Jersey known for, you know, a blue state but mostly known for its, you know, centers, you know, politics.

Yeah.

And we didn't know what we were going to, stumble across.

But little by little, going to events, going to these meetings, there were some shocking things that, you know, that that I came across.

Yeah.

So you were going to, public forums, town hall style events being held by folks who aren't necessarily in elected office.

Yeah, right.

Can you give us an example and some of the, I'll say, toxic influencers, you know, my words that you uncovered in the series?

Right.

So you have this this grassroots element, in in new Jersey, you have groups like the new Jersey project with Nick Stoffer.

You have some individuals like Mike crispy, for the America First Republicans of New Jersey, who are pushing a lot of xenophobia, a lot of pushing, pushing the rhetoric hard.

And then at these events, you will see mayors, local officials, people that, maybe not may not be, you know, you know, saying extremist rhetoric, but certainly are they're elevating, these groups in the series.

You lay out sort of who some of these people are.

Can you give us a couple of names?

But are there others who are maybe more well-known where the audience might say, hey, I've seen them, I've heard them.

And why is that important?

Because perhaps they have a larger reach at these events that I went to.

What I really noticed was everybody knew each other.

This was this was, a tight knit group where you have individuals like Ed Durr showing up, former state senator, who attended the Chemung event, who knew next offer and and was, you know, immersed in this, you know, in this in this network of, of grassroots individuals.

And so you have higher profile, you know, people in the state level mixing with this, you know, this grassroots, you know, this grassroots element, you know, of this.

Yeah.

What kind of topics are they talking about?

You know, at that, event in Chemung, which, which which surprised me a lot.

You're talking about, you know, schools grooming children, accusations that, schools are grooming children.

An individual like, Steven Solloway getting up there and, talking about how immigrants are vermin and slime, how they don't value life.

What role does social media have here in amplifying some of these messages?

Because you're talking about folks who are prominent in the community.

Solloway being a doctor in Vineland.

So, likely known by folks in the community, if he's talking about immigrants as vermin and you have a state elected official there in the background sort of lending some credibility without, speaking up.

What kind of platform is social media giving these ideologies?

And how is it amplifying it to reach folks?

Right.

And that's the thing.

They're all cross promoting each other on social.

You know, a lot of them are cross promoting each other on social media.

You know, they're, advertising their events.

Everybody seems to know everybody in this circle.

So, bottom line, what type of influence does this have on our politics and our elections?

I think you have two factions in new Jersey right now.

You have establishment Republicans who I think wish this just went away.

You have more moderate Republicans who I think just wish this disappeared.

And then you have other Republicans in the state that are trying to straddle this line.

That's why I thought, because they they feel like they need this, this group of voters.

Yeah, I think they yes, yes, that's right.

I mean, they they obviously think it is helping them in some way because they're showing up to these events and they're gathering with them.

They even if they don't espouse those same ideals, even if they're not.

Right.

When Bob Barr showed up at Chemung, he's not saying, he's not spouting, you know, extremist rhetoric, but he's certainly there and he's not calling it out.

Some of them are trying to have it both ways.

And, and that's what it seems like.

Yeah.

Spencer Kent is a journalist with NJ Advance Media.

The series is online.

Thank you so much for coming in.

Thanks so much for having me.